HP DriveLock and data security

[Caspar-MIT]

Hi, I'm using a ProBook 470 with an SSD in it.

I use drivelock to prevent others from accessing my system in case it should get stolen. I must enter password on each boot.  In my case the SSD is a self encrypting one, so all data on the drive should be encrypted (class 0)

Two questions:

1:  What happens if you take out the drive and try accessing it as a second drive in a different pc (somebody steals laptop, removes drive, tries to access it?) I presume you cannot do anything with it..

2:  What if my laptop dies (powersupply,mainboard etc) and I need to recover data from my own drive without a similar notebook? Would that be possible or do I have to rely on backups that I made myself? Can the drive be used in a similar notebook that supports drivelock?

[IT_WinSec]

Hello @Caspar-MIT

Welcome to the HP Support forum. Thank You !

DrIveLock - do you mean this one ?  https://www.drivelock.com/

The Full Disk Encryption solution from this Germany vendor ?

I suppose you mean this so answering now:

1) If anyone tries to access the data from another PC/secondary drive, this is considered "offline attack". They should be able to mount the HDD but the file system should be unknown to their PCs and therefore, should not be able to access anything there.

If the PC supports DriveLock or have it installed, it should ask for the encryption key to unlock it but you should be the only one that has this key, therefore, the data should be protected in this scenario

2) I am always saying to customers that full disk encryption software is a solution for protection, not for recovery of data. Users should always create a backup of the data on another media (another drives) so that in case Windows fails to load or in case something happens with the storage (HDD/SSD), you are prepared. No encryption software guarantees 100% data recovery in case of failure, therefore the back up is the best approach. I am telling you this from experience because I used to work in a security team (endpoint security) for years and I was dealing with such things regularly.

With regards to the specific questions - depending on the settings (configuration), the drive may be seen (attached) to another drive that supports Drive Lock *but* the encryption key must be provided to unlock the drive. If the software is configured so that the particular disk is associated only with a particular PC, then you won't be able to access the data from another PC.  For more specific answer, you need to check your settings or check with the DriveLock support team   https://www.drivelock.com/company.html

Let me know if this works for you. Provide an update/feedback and don't hesitate to post again

[Caspar-MIT]

Hi, thanks for the reply but I mean I'm using DriveLock feature from the BIOS of the notebook itself, no third party software

[IT_WinSec]

Hi @Caspar-MIT

Thank you for your clarification. I should have thought of this earlier 🙂

The reply will be very similar as the initial one even for HP's built-in DriveLock option

• If anyone tries to access the data from another PC/secondary drive, this is considered "offline attack". They should should not be able to access anything there.
• There is no way to recover the data - rely on back ups.

Here is more information and double confirmation for my words - HP's official document on this - details page 6 >> http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03453264.pdf

Hope this helps.

 🙂